Benjamin Britten & David Lemon Smiles

English Rose Rosa ' Benjamin Britten' August 10 2018

Some years ago I photographed (many times) the urbane and smiling English man, David Lemon who made lots of money taking the big chance of ensuring fishing boats that roamed the Bering Sea. Lemon is a connoisseur of the arts and particularly of music. In more recent times he became a miniaturist artist painter.

My mother used to say (and I believed her) that no good English composers followed Henry Purcell.

I decide to test Lemon’s smile by repeating my mother’s words. Lemon frowned.

Since then I have become less of an idiot and I have come to appreciate English music. In fact in the early 70s I listened to a lot of Vaughan Williams and I had a fondness for his Sinfonia antartica (he gave it an Italian title). This particular symphony complete with wind machines would help to cool us down these days.

Thanks to Marc Detrubé’s Microcosmos String Quartet I have been able to listen to Benjamin Britten’s three String Quartets. In fact I may be on my way to perhaps approaching the urbanity of Mr. Lemon before I die.

David Lemon's Health Arts Society takes music to the seniors and people in hospitals. The society thus employs musicians who always need to make more money!

David Lemon

Colin McKayDavid Lemon is the founder of Health Arts Societies and the Executive Director of Health Arts Society in BC and Health Arts Society of Ontario. The seven societies, including Société pour les Arts en Milieux de Santé in Quebec, provide first class professional music under the banner Concerts in Care to elders in residential care across Canada.

David Lemon’s insurance career began at Lloyd’s in 1964 and continued after his immigration to Canada in 1971. In 1976 he co-founded Harlock Williams Lemon Ltd, a marine insurance underwriter. It was sold in 1989 to the Co-operators Group. David continued as President of the company until 1997. David owned The Magic Flute CD store from 1992 to 2004. From 2004 to 2012 he was a board member of the Roofing Contractors Indemnity Company, a captive insurer. During his business years David was active as a board member of organizations including Vancouver Opera, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver New Music, Ballet BC and the Vancouver Bach Choir. He was the first chair of sponsorship for Vancouver Opera and the Vancouver Art Gallery, a founder of the Opera Round Table with President Colin Warner, and initiated and implemented the first Vancouver Art Gallery Auction. David also produced a number of projects, including the visits to Vancouver of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the New European Strings. He initiated and sponsored several programs with the Vancouver Bach Choir, including the first Canadian performance of Hector Berlioz’s newly discovered Messe Solennelle. As chair of UBC’s Adaskin Society David produced several private concerts for the benefit of the School of Music, and assisted Herbert Auerbach to produce several concerts for the Bill Reid Foundation at the University of Northern British Columbia.

David donated his collections of prints and drawings to institutions including the National Gallery of Canada. David commissioned, for the benefit of UBC, an oratorio, Job from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. It opened the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in 1997. In 1996 David was granted the Edmund C. Bovey award and in 1997 he received an honorary degree from UBC.